The Last Great Australian Adventure

I wrote this a little less than a week ago and then never posted it…Oops! I’m blaming jetlag.

It has been a long two weeks. My Dad flew in on November 16^th and my Mom and brother arrived in Sydney on the 18^th and we were officially on vacation.  I had finished my one an only final exam and was ready to show my parents around this city that I have come to love.  Sydney didn’t want to cooperate though.  The weather was a bit chilly and even rainy.  I showed them around all the typical places like Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Darling Harbour, and Manly Beach. My family didn’t seem to mind the weather though, it was still warmer than being at home in Michigan in November.  After 5 days in Sydney we were off to Melbourne.

We were only in Melbourne for 2 nights.  My Dad has a work friend, Alex, that lives there and so we had dinner with him and his wife at this very nice Italian restaurant.  It was a good time.  Alex offered to drive us down the Great Ocean Road the next day.  We spent the whole next day in the car driving next to the beautiful ocean, we stopped in a small town called Lorne for lunch and then later on we stopped to see a waterfall.  All in all it was a pretty good day.  Very lazy but we got plenty of site seeing in.  My only regret about Melbourne is that we didn’t really get a chance to see the city.  I’ve heard such great things about it.  I guess I’ll just have to go back some day.

Next up, was Ayers Rock.  We spent the whole day flying from Melbourne to Alice Springs and from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock.  Funny thing about being in Alice Springs and Ayers Rock is that the time change in on the half hour.  So while it was noon in Sydney, it would be 10:30am in Ayers Rock.  It is by far the weirdest time change I’ve ever done, definitely not the hardest though.  For those of you that don’t know where Ayers Rock is, it’s smack in the middle of Australia, in what they call the Red Center.  So you’re all probably wondering ‘what the heck is in the middle of Australia?! There’s nothing there!’, well you’d be mostly right.  Except, there are these very large rock formations.  We went out there to see Uluru but there is another formation called Kata Tjuta.  We spent a day at the cultural center in the national park and then walked around part of Uluru.  It was a lot of fun and very hot (duh it’s the desert)!  We learned that both of the rock formations are believed continue several kilometers into the earth. The slab of rock and sediment was turn upwards and sideways over hundreds of millions of years and now what we see of Uluru and Kata Tjuta is really just the tips of these huge pieces of rock that once made up the ocean floor.  Being the science nerd that I am I thought this was really cool when it was all explained.  Even if you don’t appreciate the science of it all you’ll definitely appreciate the view, so check out the pictures below.

Sunset view! Check out those colors!

We made it to the watering hole!

After spending two nights in Ayers Rock we got in yet another plane and headed to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!  We arrived late in the evening and had to take an hour-long bus ride out to Port Douglas where we were staying.  The hour ride was totally worth it though because our hotel was amazing! We basically were staying in a two bedroom apartment that was right next to the pool.  This was no ordinary pool though, they called it the lagoon and the pool went all the way around the entire hotel.  So I could swim from my room to the hotel bar at the other end of the hotel. Anyway, we weren’t there to hang out in the hotel all week so after a great first day of simply relaxing and exploring Port Douglas we set out the second day for the reef.  We got up early that morning and hopped on a bus that took us to the marina where we hopped on a huge ship that took us the two hours to the outer reef.  I was really excited to go snorkeling again and possibly do some scuba diving.  I ended up doing a lot of snorkeling but no scuba diving.  My dad, brother, and I did something called a helmet dive.  It was really strange.  We were able to walk around under water and touch some of the wildlife that the instructors brought to us.  The suits and helmets were incredibly heavy and it was very disconcerting to be basically in a bubble.  Both my brother and my dad said afterwards that it was super cool but also really nerve racking at the time because the helmet could literally just fall off and we were so weighed down that it was really difficult to move.  I felt exactly the same way while we were down there, super nervous but everything was still really cool and totally worth the experience.

My brother

Check out my sweet outfit!

So you guys may be wondering well isn’t the reef dying and could I see evidence of that?  I had several friends that had visited the reef before me and said that it was definitely starting to gray and bleach.  But I’d never seen it before, nor have I ever seen any reef before so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. But yes, there were definitely spots that were significantly gray, I had originally thought that it was just how far away I was from it all but even when I ‘duck dove’ I couldn’t see any more color that I could from afar.  But then there were also spots that were clearly very colorful and the fish themselves are all brilliant colors.  So, I’m really glad I got to see some of its brilliance. Sadly I did not find Nemo but I heard that one couple on the ship had seen a clown fish. I was super jealous and kept looking but never found one.  Maybe I’ll just have to go back someday.

We spent one more day in Port Douglas just hanging around town and enjoying the last of the summer sun and then headed off to Brisbane where the next day we would fly out to L.A. and back home.  After 27 hours of travel from the hotel in Brisbane to my own front door I was very glad to be home and in my own bed.  This trip was amazing and I’m so happy that my family came down and shared it with me!  It was a great way to leave Australia.  I’m sure I’ll miss everything about Sydney and Australia that I’ve come to know and love, but for right now I’m just enjoying being home.

Thailand Video

Disclaimer: In no way is my reference to Whoville a reflection of my beliefs about Thailand and the Thai people. I was standing in a mall with a big Christmas tree and the whoville theme song was playing.

Pattaya, Thailand

I’m officially done with exams! Which makes me not want to do any more work…like writing this blog. But just for you guys I will keep writing! Plus I know you’re all curious about my adventures in Thailand.

The day after I got back from the Gold Coast I headed back to the airport in Sydney and was off to Thailand!  I first had to fly to Hong Kong and sit in the airport there for 6 hours before getting onto another plane to Bangkok. The Hong Kong airport is pretty big with plenty of things to do so I wasn’t too bored. When I finally arrived in Bangkok it was 10pm.  My Dad and a driver picked me up from the terminal and we began the 2-hour drive to Pattaya, where I would stay for the weekend because of the floods.  When we arrived in Pattaya there was a huge festival going on.  The traffic was crazy and there were so many people out and about.  It was midnight and it didn’t look like the party was stopping any time soon. Unfortunately I was exhausted so I went straight to the hotel to crash.  It had been a long day, 24 hours from the time I left my apartment in Sydney to the time I arrived at the hotel in Pattaya.

The next day my dad had to work so I got to hang around the hotel a bit and also explore the city.  I was a little nervous to go out on my own not knowing the language or anything at all really but I managed.  I decided not to be too adventurous for lunch and went to a familiar chain restaurant.  After that I walked the beach and wandered the streets checking out all the shops.  The beach was nothing compared to the ones in Australia.  The sand was not nearly as fine and the water was a little murky (from the flood waters I would bet).  Sometimes I forget how spoiled I am to be this close to fantastic beaches all the time.  Anyway, checking out the shops was pretty cool. Many of the shops sold the same things but a few had some unique things.  The weirdest thing I saw was down jackets.  It was 90º+, who needs a down jacket?!  Checking out the shops took longer than I had expected.  I would go to look at a shirt or a dress and immediately the store owner would be right there asking if I wanted to buy it, finding me another size, suggesting more clothes to try.  I really just wanted to look not buy but several times I got stuck talking to people for 15 minutes trying to say no and they would just offer me a lower and lower price.  Things are already cheap there, it made me wonder what the clothes actually cost to make and how much money the store owners end up with.  I also wondered if maybe they really needed any money they could get.  It made me feel really guilty for not buying anything. 

After an exhausting afternoon of exploring I headed back to the hotel to study a bit (yes, I was on vacation but I still had to study).  When my Dad finally got back from work we headed off to dinner.  My Dad’s colleague, Janesh, and Janesh’s wife Lopa (I believe that was her name) took us to a REAL thai restaurant. I LOVE thai food, many of you probably know that, so I was in heaven.  We ordered a bunch of food for everyone to share.  My favorite was probably the red curry but there was a surprise second, a spicy soup.  I’ve never had a soup that was spicy before so it was a little unexpected. I expected it to be heavier, in texture and in flavor, but it was very light and if definitely still packed a punch.  Unfortunately I forget what it was called.  I doubt I’ll be able to find it in the states anyway. Friday was another early night.  The time change had (and still has) me all messed up.  Bangkok is 4 hours behind Sydney so at midnight it felt like 4am.

The good thing about going to bed early though is that it makes it easier to wake up early the next day!  It’s a good thing too because my Dad and I had some crazy adventures planned.  We got up early and had breakfast in the hotel. At 9:30 we headed down to the lobby and hopped in a van that took us to something called the Flight of the Gibbon!  It’s a zipline tour through the rainforest.  I’d had done something similar a few years ago in Costa Rica so I sort of knew what to expect.  I’m really not great with height but I’ve been challenging myself a lot lately.  My Dad isn’t great with heights either but he’s usually better than me (I was surprised he actually suggested this!).  So after getting all geared up we hiked into the forest and climbed onto the first platform.  The first few “flights” were pretty easy.  We were still in the trees and not too far from the ground.  After a while though we clearly were getting higher because eventually we ended up above the canopy.  I actually did ok, I was a little nervous for most of it but not bad.  It was really a lot of fun and I think my Dad enjoyed it too.  After we finished the course we headed back to the base for lunch and then eventually back to the hotel in Pattaya.

After a little more studying (procrastinating) we headed downstairs to dinner.  We had booked tickets for the Loy Krathong dinner party.  The hotel was hosting it as a part of the festival that was going on but it was clearly more for the tourists like me.  There was fantastic food and we also got to see some cultural dances from each of the four regions of Thailand.  It was very fun.  After the dinner was over we were able to float our own krathongs (flower arrangements) into the pool.  Loy Krathong is a time to pay respects to the spirit of the water.  I learned that it also happens to coincide with another festival, Yi Peng. Yi Peng is a time to “make merit”, a Buddhist concept.  For this festival you light lanterns and float them like hot-air balloons into the sky.  This is what had been going on the first night I arrived in Pattaya.  That’s why there were so many people out.

Sunday was another day of adventure.  After breakfast we walked around the city to kill some time before our tour.  After lunch we headed off the Sriracha Tiger Zoo.  I’d read a bit about it before we went.  People’s reviews of it said that they did not treat the animals well but local people had told us that it was still worth it to see the animals up close.  We decided to go clearly.  The whole time I was thinking “I really don’t like this…Oh that’s soo cool!” I was very torn about it.  The tigers were definitely being treated too roughly for my taste, and everywhere we turned the zoo keepers were exploiting the animals and asking if we wanted our picture taken with them just to make more money.  I did give in several times. I couldn’t pass up sitting with a tiger or being lifted up by an elephant!  After walking around the zoo for a while we ended up at the elephant show.  The only other person on our tour, Jason, a military man stationed in Germany but in Thailand on leave volunteered to be part of the show. It was fun.  The elephant walked over the top of him, pretended to step on him and even threw darts at him.  My Dad was nice enough to video tape it all and we sent a copy to Jason so that he could remember it.

After the zoo we headed back to Pattaya.  It was dinner time so we ventured out and found a great looking place just a little ways down the beach from our hotel.  I was able to have Thai food for one more meal and my Dad ordered something a little more familiar.  That was the end of my last full day in Thailand.  Monday I spent studying and packing.  Janesh’s driver drove me to the airport in the afternoon and I headed back to Hong Kong and then on to Sydney.  The flight was overnight so it wasn’t too bad, I just slept most of the way. When I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning I headed straight home to start studying for real.  I had just over 24 hours until my exam.

This weekend was a whirlwind of events.  I loved Thailand and I can’t wait to go back.  I definitely didn’t get to do everything I wanted to.  I didn’t even see a temple or go to the floating markets! Oh well, I’ll just have to go back.

So I’m sure many of you are wondering “Well what about the floods?! She hasn’t mentioned the floods at all.” Well to be honest I didn’t see a whole lot of evidence of them.  Because I flew in at night I wasn’t able to see them from the plane.  At the airport though there are hundreds of cars parked just on the side of the raised highway in order to keep them safe.  In Pattaya nothing was flooded.  I saw sandbags in front of one shop and it was only at the basement door.

I was beginning to wonder if I would see the floods at all.  On Monday when the driver drove  me to the airport I was just zoning out while staring out the window when I suddenly realized that I could see what looked like hundreds of lakes of water. Every backyard or field we passed was flooded.  Some of what appeared to be major roads were flooded even thought the next road over was fine.  It was crazy and clearly has been devastating.  I finally got to see it all from the air when I flew out of Bangkok.  It made the earth look like a patchwork quilt. Some squares of fields were green and others were dark and full of water.

On the one hand I’m very glad that I was able to mostly avoid the floods, but on the other I wish I had been able to see more of them and maybe do something to help.  I have a friend that lives near Bangkok, I tried to see him while I was there but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out.  His house is flooded and his family has had to stay with relatives in Bangkok.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Sorry there are no pictures. I'm having trouble loading them from my computer. Hopefully I'll be able to post them soon.

Giant Spiders and Snakes

So as many of you know I went to visit my friend Scanlon this past week on the Gold Coast.  We did a weekend camping trip through her school to Moreton Island.  I was super excited because I haven’t been able to do Fraser Island, which is a little bit more popular and touristy but Moreton Island has many of the same activities.

Moreton Island from the Ferry

We got up super early Friday to hop on the bus.  There were about 30 students on this trip and I was the only one not from Bond Uni.  Scanlon knew a bunch of the other students so we hopped on the bus with them and began our hour-long drive to Brisbane.  In Brisbane we caught the ferry to Moreton Island. The ferry trip was another hour and a half so we had plenty of time to sleep and play some card games while enjoying the beautiful views of Moreton Bay.

For those of you that don’t know much about Moreton Island here is a little history lesson.  The island is almost completely made of sand.  The Aboriginal people call it Moorgumpin, which means place of sandhills (yes it actually has huge dunes).  There is a wide variety of wildlife on the island (which we experienced quite a bit of).  Because Moreton Island was never part of the mainland it doesn’t have many of the larger animals you would normally think of as being Australian (like kangaroos).  The largest mammal is a bandicoot (who knew bandicoots were real animals?! I thought they were just gaming characters).  Aside from all the wildlife there is actually a lot of history on the island.  European settlers (and by that I mean local convicts) built a lighthouse when Moreton Bay became a main shipping area because of the many shipwrecks.  Moreton Island was also used as a major coastal defense base during both world wars. Today Moreton Island is a National Park and Recreation Area.  It can only be accessed by ferry/boat and traveled by foot or 4WD vehicles.

Lighthouse

After our lovely ferry ride we hopped into our bus/4WD thing and headed off to camp.  The camp was all set up for us already.  The tents just stay pitched from week to week and the company has an outdoor kitchen and bathroom facilities right near the campgrounds.  We were told to pick our tents, drop our stuff off and change into bathing suits so that we could head to the beach.  I chose a tent with Scanlon and her friend Kristen.  We were a little slow at getting ready because we were distracted by the GIANT spider on the outside of our tent!  After chasing it off we finally were able to put our suits on and head back to the bus.  A short ride got us across the island and we drove to the lighthouse on the northern point.  After the light house my bus had to head back to the ferry to drop someone off and then met up with the other bus at the only store on the island.  We bought provisions for the night and then headed out to the beach before going back to camp for dinner.

One of the many creatures we encountered

The next day a group of people went to hike Mount. Tempest, one of the sand dunes that is covered in vegetation.  I stayed at camp and hung out at the beach with a few people.  We played some frisbee, swam, kayaked, and just enjoyed the sunshine.  The two groups came back together for lunch (The food was actually pretty good the whole weekend).  After lunch we headed over to the wrecks to go snorkeling! It was sooo much fun! We saw all kinds of fish, a sea turtle and even a few sharks!  They weren’t big sharks, I can’t actually remember what kind they were even but apparently they’re ones that smother you and then eat you. Awesome right?! Haha

After checking out the shark we took a break for a photo op.

That night after dinner Scanlon and I went in search of starfish on the beach.  We had gone the night before and found a perfect one but someone had thrown it in the trash after we brought it back to camp. L  We didn’t find anymore good ones to keep but we did save a few. We also found a huge jellyfish that looked like a brain or like smokers lung haha. It was so cool and sooo gross.  The amount of wildlife on the island is amazing.  That night at the campfire we also saw sugar gliders (flying squirrels!). It was soo cool.  There were three of them flying from tree to tree.

Sunday was another early morning.  We had lots to do before leaving the island.  We packed up camp and hopped in the bus to drive across the island to the sand dunes.  On our way there our bus got stuck in the sand twice! We had to dig it out and then push it out both times. It was actually a lot of fun but it was crazy hot outside so I was very happy to get back in the bus when it was over.  Finally we made it to the dunes.  From the front it didn’t look very big.  Certainly not bigger than anything we have in Michigan.  We climbed to what we thought was the top and then realized that there was another even larger dune behind it that we still had to climb.  After a very long hike up the dune we were rewarded by sand boarding down it! This is something I haven’t done before. In Michigan we just run down them.  I think they’re steeper at home and sand boarding might not be safe. Who knows I could be totally wrong.  Either way it was really fun.  After sand boarding we got to export the resort that is on the island and relax at the beach while we waited for the ferry to take us home.

After we'd already climbed the first half of the dune

It was a fantastic weekend. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for adventure.

Sunset from our campsite

School's out for Summer!

Sooo my semester of classes is officially over! I still have one exam left but it's not for another two weeks.  Plenty of time to study right?...Not! I've got a busy schedule for the next month. It's going to be crazy!  I'm traveling all over and my parents and brother are coming!

Last week was mostly busy with finishing up classes. I didn't do anything awesome or spectacular really.  I had a quiz and two major papers due.  Finished all those up and went out this past weekend to celebrate the end of semester.  The frisbee club had an end of year dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant.  The theme was silly hats.  Of course I don't own a hat in Australia other than my bridge climb hat so I made one out of a lei that i got here the first week of classes.  After dinner we went out dancing until late.  It was a really fun night. I'm going to miss all the people I've met.

Then on Saturday my friend Chloe hosted a bunch of people at her house for crepes and drinking games.  It was a good time.  I got to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a while.  The crepes were fantastic as usual. After hanging out for a while a few of us went out dancing at Sidebar.  I ended up heading home pretty early though.

This week I'm on the Gold Coast visiting Scanlon! I just got here yesterday. Scanlon surprised me at the airport and picked me up instead of making me take a shuttle which was really nice. And guess what the first thing she made me do was! Play frisbee!  Her friend Mitch drove us to frisbee practice.  It was a lot of fun. I haven't been able to really play for the past month or so because I've been injured but I was officially cleared last week.  I was definitely a little rusty, even dropped the disc on my goal line oops! haha Oh well it was a blast.  Oh! and I saw a guy I knew from high school!  I thought I recognized him but thought there was no way it could be someone I knew.  But someone called him by name and I realized it was him! Craziness! The hippy chupacabras (my high school frisbee team) live on!

I'm here for the rest of the week. Don't know what else we have planned but this weekend we're going to Moreton Island.  After this week I'm headed back to Sydney for a day and then off to Bangkok.  My dad will be there for business.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the flooding will have subsided considerable by then.  After Bangkok I'll head back to Sydney to take my exam and then hang out for a few days before my parents and brother arrive for our Australian adventure.  They'll stay in Sydney for a few days and then we're off to Melbourne, Uluru, Cairns, and Brisbane.  It's going to be a whirlwind of travel and events but it'll be a blast.  I'm looking forward to all my crazy adventures.  I'll be sure to keep you all posted!

Climbing Harbour Bridge!

Last week I got a call from one of my friends letting me know that they were coming to Sydney for the day and wanted to know if I wanted to climb the bridge with them.  Of course I said yes!  It's one of the typical touristy things to do in town and honestly I had given up on doing it.  It costs quite a bit of money and I didn't know of anyone that wanted to go along.  So I was excited when my friend called and asked.

As many of you know, I'm terrified of heights.  Although from reading this blog you'd probably never guess seeing as I've done bungy, skydiving, and bridge climbing all in the same month.  Anyway, bridge climbing was pretty scary at points.  Walking out on the first section where the floor is see through was NOT fun!  I did get used to it the longer we were out there.  After the first section heading out to the main arch we had to climb up ladders through the traffic on the bridge.  Going up was not fun but after getting to the arch and making it to the top it was totally worth it.  Going back down was a bit hard on my knee but really not as bad as I expected.  Going down the ladder though was absolutely terrifying.  The ladder we had to go down was right next to the train tracks and as the train went by the whole ladder would shake. That was the worst part. All in all though totally worth it. Check out the pictures below.

Brooke, Caitlin, Myself, Ashley, Ebony, and Christine

Sydney!

I know we look superimposed but we aren't I swear!

Checking out the Opera House

Made it to the top!

Week 12

This past week has been fantastic. I had no schoolwork to do and so I spent the week enjoying Sydney.  The weather was amazing everyday. It’s really starting to feel like summer here.  It’s about time too, we’ve got one week of classes left and then finals and the year is over!  I can’t believe that it’s gone by so fast. There are so many things that I wanted to do that I haven’t done. Thankfully I’ve got a month left so I should be able to fit a few things in.

I started to try to fit things in this past week.  Last weekend I had a few friends here to visit so we went out on the town Saturday night.  We were supposed to go to a place called Ivy.  It’s pretty swanky. Unfortunately we were to late to get the discount ($10 instead of $20) cover price.  So instead we just went to a bar close to my apartment. The next day we learned that Leonardo DiCaprio had been at Ivy that night! Ugh, so I missed out on a celebrity spotting. He’s here filming the remake of The Great Gatsby.  He’s actually been hanging out around my uni a lot too. I heard a few people in class talking about having seen him at Manning Bar one afternoon.  Crazy stuff.  He should be here for another month or so filming so maybe I’ll see him on campus. I’ll keep an eye out.

Anyway, after going out last Saturday my friends and I spent Sunday relaxing at Manly Beach.  It was a gorgeous day but a little cold so we never actually went in the water.  While hanging out we overheard a group of high school girls talking.  They were planning to call a girl they knew just to tell her that they were all hanging out and that she wasn’t welcome.  They were really mean to the girl and she ended up hanging up on them.  Sometimes I can’t believe how catty girls can be.  It was just shocking how mean they were. And they just laughed when it was all over.  Whatever, the beach is great I’ll just have to avoid idiot girls when I’m there next time.  And of course I’ll have to go again! I think I’ll take my parents there when they come.

So finally Monday rolled around and I went to class as usual.  Classes this past week were very strange. A lot of my tutes are over and many of my classes announced that it was the last lecture.  I’ve got a few assignments due next week but nothing due this week so I just enjoyed my free time.  I probably should have started some work but who cares!

So, while I wasn’t in class I was exploring the city. On Wednesday I felt like walking so I set out from campus and ventured into the CBD (downtown).  It’s quite a hike from where I live to the typical touristy places you would think of in Sydney so I set off in that direction but didn’t really plan on going that far.  I ventured down George St.  I had a lot of fun people watching and listening to my ipod.  I made it all the way to Martin place where Occupy Sydney is happening.  I hung out there for a while reading signs and listening to the string quartet that was playing (yes string quartet!).  Then I headed over to Hyde Park. There seemed to be a lot more people there than usual.  Then I realized that the international food festival is going on and Hyde Park was hosting the Night Noodle Markets.  I didn’t eat there that night but I did end up going back the next.

My favorite sign at Occupy Sydney

Curry Puff at Night Noodle Markets

Walking around the city this week had made me realize just how comfortable I am here. It’s really starting to feel like home.  I understand the transit system. I don’t get lost just walking around.  People even ask me for directions, which means I look like I know what I’m doing!  And of course this is all happening just in time for me to get ready to go home.  I’m trying to cram everything in at the last minute.  I’ve got about a month left in Sydney and I’m not even spending it all here.  I’ve got big travel plans. I’m going to the Gold Coast and Brisbane for a week and then I’m off to Bangkok for a long weekend, all before my first and only final on the 16^th.  It’s going to be a whirlwind adventure but I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my baby brother! He turns 19 today!

New Zealand - Part 2

So I'm too lazy to give you guys a real update as to how the rest of that week went but just know that it was amazing and that someday I'll have to go back. Here are some pictures from the rest of my adventure.

Jet boating in Queenstown Day 4

Rafting in Queenstown Day 4

Bungy Jumping Day 5

Heading up the Mountain Day 5

Skydiving Day 5

Milford Sound Day 7

Sheep Sheering at Morelea Farm Day 9

Watching the sunset over Christchurch Day 9

New Zealand - Part 1

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated but I swear I’ve had good reasons! My most recent reason being my adventures in New Zealand!

Last week was “Spring Break”! Although they don’t do that here, so they just call it semester break or study vacation.  I made plans to go to New Zealand on a tour of the south island with a company called Extreme Adventures.  So on Thursday September 22^nd my roommate and I got on a plane to Christchurch and our adventures began.

We arrived in Christchurch around 1am.  We happened to be on the same plane as some of our friends from uni so we went through customs with them.   We were hoping to get through quickly and head to our hostel to get some sleep but we weren’t so lucky.  One of our girls forgot that she was carrying apples in her backpack.  They found them and she was automatically fined $400.  It sucked. After figuring out when the fine needed to be paid by and officially throwing out the apples we hopped on a shuttle to our hostel, Point Break. It took us a whole hour to get there and I don’t think we officially checked in until almost 3am.  We had to get up early the next morning but I was still wired from the flight and too excited for the adventures to start, so I don’t think I slept much.

Day 1

7am came fast, so I packed up my stuff and headed down to the café for some breakfast and to meet all of my tour-mates.  Everyone was crowded into the café waiting in line for breakfast.  People were friendly, and introducing themselves.  As I got to the front of the line I found my first surprise of the day, bananas for only $1!  I was so excited. So I ordered a toasty, smoothie, and a banana.  Breakfast of champions!  Then I went to find Adhi.  Then came surprise number two for the morning, Adhi was sitting next to David, a guy we know from uni in Sydney.  I knew that David was going to NZ for break but hadn’t known he would be on our tour.  It was nice to add one more familiar face to the group though.

In total there were 34 of us.  As we piled on to the bus we learned that there were 28 girls, 3 guys, 1 tour guide, and 1 bus driver.  As we began our first day of adventures our tour guide, Chappy, started the introductions.  Most of our group was originally from the U.S., two of the guys were German, and several of the girls were from Mexico.  Our bus driver, Clinton, was the only Kiwi (New Zealander) and Chappy we learned was originally from Oz.  We had an entire day on the bus ahead of us, so off we went.

Our tour bus for the week

On our way out of Christchurch I was looking forward to seeing the city.  Because we came in so late the night before, we didn’t get to see anything until the morning.  The city is clearly still devastated.  The roads are horrible and there are construction cones everywhere and yet no reconstruction is going on.  They are still experiencing aftershock quakes that have made re-building very difficult.  The entire CBD (central business district, what we would call downtown) is still shut down, you can’t even drive through it.  It’s very sad, it reminds me of many of the places I’ve been to on mission trips.  Maybe I’ll go back someday on a service trip.

A few hours later we stopped in the mountains at Arthur’s Pass.  It was a perfect stop for some photos and to learn a little about the Southern Alps.  The Southern Alps run North and South, almost the entire length of the island.  There are only 3 places you can cross them.  Arthur’s Pass is one of them.  I also learned that Captain Cook named them and that Mount. Cook is the highest peak of the whole range.  Yay for name related trivia!

Arthur's Pass with Adhi, Dana, and Eileen

Later we stopped in Hokitika for lunch.  Adhi and I ate burgers with two girls from the tour and then ran errands around town.  I went to the grocery store and bought a few things that I had forgotten.  Then we headed to the beach to hang out before we had to hop back onto the bus.  It was freezing but I still took my shoes off and ran to the water.

After a long day on the bus we finally arrived in the tiny town of Fox Glacier.  We checked into our hostel, made some dinner, and headed out to the pub to watch the Wallabies crush the U.S. in the Rugby World Cup.  After all that I was exhausted and so I headed to bed early.

Day 2

Saturday was another early morning.  We checked in at Fox Glacier Guiding at 8am.  After getting all suited up with waterproof pants and jackets, socks, boots, gloves and hats we loaded onto the bus and drove out to Fox Glacier.  The weather was crappy, cold and raining, but we were all excited for the hike anyway, plus all the spiffy new gear helped keep us warm.

Yay we made it to the terminal face of Fox Glacier!

Hanging out in an ice cave 

The hike was amazing!  The views were so cool and we learned lots of cool stuff about the glacier itself.  Fox Glacier is one of only three glaciers that start in the mountains and end in the rainforest.  This is only possible because it rains 200 days out of the year.  This means that at the top of the glacier there is a steady supply of snow that gets compressed into ice.  Even still though the glacier is now receding due to global warming.

As some of you may know I sprained my patellar tendon a few weeks ago and so my knee was killing me after this hike! Anyway, we had all worked up an appetite so we walked to a nearby pub and ate lunch before hopping back on the bus to head to Wanaka for the night.

Five hours later we arrived in Wanaka and checked in at Base.  We had 8 share bedrooms at Base, which is the most we ever had to stuff into one room.  It was fun though.  After settling in at the Hostel we explored town a little bit before the sun went down.  Some of us ventured to the lake while others sat and got a drink.  Then we all headed back to the hostel for a bbq and to watch the All Blacks (New Zealand) play France.  It was a lot of fun but again I was exhausted and so I went to sleep early.  Don’t worry though, there were plenty of nights that I was out late. I wasn’t a loser the whole time.

Lake Wanaka

Day 3

The next morning we got to sleep in.  Wanaka is a very quiet town.  There isn’t much to do and so we walked out of town a ways to Puzzling World to entertain ourselves.  A big group of us went and it was actually really fun.  We started out by doing a maze!  Emily, Adhi, and I walked the maze together and were the first group to get through!  We didn’t quite beat our tour guide though, but he had done it before so he doesn’t count.  After the maze we explored the museum a little bit more.  It was full of optical illusions and puzzles.

Hanging around at Puzzling World

After Puzzling World we walked back into town and hung out at the lakefront and went to a café for breakfast.  Then we piled back onto the bus and headed out to Queenstown.  After 2 hours on the bus we arrived in Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand!

In Queenstown we checked in at Reaver’s Lodge and figured out our room assignments for the next few days.  We all had four shares and I was lucky enough to room with Eileen, Abby, and Kristyn.  They’re a fun group.  After settling in we decided to head down the mountain and explore town a little bit.  We stepped out of the hostel and to our surprise it was snowing!  Just flurries, but still really truly snowing.  It made me miss fall/winter at home.  I love the smell of snow.

The amazing view from Reaver's

We went into town and got some lunch and some souvenirs.  Later we had pizza for dinner at World Bar.  Then some teapots!  They were not normal teapots full of tea, they were full of mixed drinks.  It was fun. We shared a few between a group of us so that we could taste multiple flavors.  After World Bar, we went to a bar called Altitude.  It was crazy for a Sunday night.  The bar was packed and we ended up staying there until almost 3am.  After Altitude we went to Fergburger.  Fergburger is the best burger in NZ!  We were there until probably 4am.  Then we hiked back up the mountain, the steepest freaking hill ever, to Reaver’s.  My knee was killing me all week from dancing and hiking up this stupid hill.  All in all it was a great first night in Queenstown.


There's more to come so stay posted!

The Adventures of Sam and Scanlon

Some of you may actually be wondering who Scanlon is so I guess I’ll start with that. She is one of my friends from Northeastern that happens to also be studying in Australia this semester.  I just can’t seem to get rid of her.  We’re in the same major, same year of school, we play the same sport, and we chose the same country to study abroad in.  Anyway, her semester here started this week but before she decided to really settle in she first came to visit me and see this awesome city that I’m living in!  We had a great week full of adventures.

Scanlon arrived here last Wednesday.  Sadly I had class so she had to find her own way into the city but she made it here safe and sound.  First thing we did was go to get Thai food!  It is by far my favorite type of food and lucky me, it’s fantastic and cheap here especially at lunch.  So we spent a few hours catching up and swapping stories and then I had to leave for class again.  Stupid class is always getting in the way of doing cool stuff and hanging with cool people.  No worries because one hour later I was free and so we ventured off into the city.  I had showed her around campus earlier so we skipped that and went straight downtown.  We walked from Ultimo, where I live, to Darling Harbour and then along the harbour all the way to Circular Quay.  We had a pretty sweet view of the bridge at sunset and then the Opera House after dark.  It gets dark here really early so it was probably only 6:30 by the time we got back to my place but we had to hurry up and have dinner so that we could get ready for the foam party!  Neither of us had ever been to a foam party before so we weren’t sure what to expect.  I have to say it was really fun and also really gross at the same time.  Not sure I’ll do that again but it was definitely an experience worth having.

Darling Harbour

Harbour Bridge

Opera House

My favorite picture from the foam party

Thursday was a more typical day for me here in Sydney.  I had to go to class for a few hours so I suggested that Scanlon take the free tour of the city and we found a buddy for her to go with so I didn’t feel too bad leaving her for part of the day.  We met up for lunch and ate at Pancakes on the Rocks.  We talked about going out and doing something that night and somehow never ended up going out at all.  We sat for 6+ hours just hanging out.  It was great to have someone familiar around.  Staying in actually worked out well for us because we had to get up ridiculously early the next morning to go to the Hunter Valley for an all day wine tour.

This is where I live

So Friday morning we got up at about 630am to catch our tour bus to The Hunter Valley.  The Hunter Valley is the wine region near Sydney.  It’s about two and a half hours outside of the city, which is why we had to get up so early.  Our tour was full of other Americans and an older Australian couple.  There was also one Australian girl there with her boyfriend.  It was a really fun group.  So at just after 9am we rolled up to our first winery of the day.  Wine really isn’t my thing but I was determined to try everything and find something I liked.  Well after four different wineries and way too many sips of wine I now know which wines I really hate and which ones I sort of like.  I guess wine really is an acquired taste.  All in all it was a great day and a great tour.

9am at Savannah, our first winery

Buying some wine

Tulloch's, winery #2

It was another early night for us Friday because we had another tour lined up for Saturday morning.  Saturday we visited The Blue Mountains!  We learned on the tour that the mountains appear blue because of the oil from the eucalyptus trees.  This was probably the only fun fact our tour guide gave us.  He was a horrible tour guide but we still had a good time.  We got to see several different lookouts over the valley in the morning.  For lunch we stopped in Katoomba to check out the local shops and find some food.  Then we moved on to the site of the Three Sisters and Scenic World.  Scanlon and I had made some friend on our tour at this point and decided to hike with them to the Three Sisters and down into the valley.  The hike was a little ridiculous.  It was mostly stairs straight down the side of the mountain. As many of you know I’m terrified of heights.  This hike definitely had me scared.  My legs were shaking the whole way both from fear and from the incredible amount of work it was to get all the way down 900+ stairs.  Once we made it into the valley we got to walk along a very easy trail and by a waterfall.  Then back up the mountain we went to catch our bus and head home to Sydney.  On the way back our tour guide stopped at Olympic Park to show us around and Scanlon and I decided to leave the tour and take the ferry down the Parramatta River into Sydney Harbour.  It was the perfect ending to our tour.  That night we went out for Italian food in Glebe (the neighborhood next to mine) and then went to a chocolate bar for dessert.  It was a very low-key night but we had a good time.  Scanlon had to leave Sunday morning early to head to school for orientation and so our long weekend was over.

Hanging off the ledge at flat rock

The three sisters (rocks in the background) with our new friend Susi

Holding on for dear life

Amy, Me, Scanlon, and Susi at the waterfall

It was a whirlwind of a weekend and it was fantastic.  Thanks Scanlon for coming to visit! I hope your semester is awesome!  I’ll have to come check out the Gold Coast when you’re all settled in.  And now back to real life, as real as life gets in Australia.